Quick Cash Donates $500k to Jamaican Federation, Richard Thompson, Beijing Silver medalist Hospitalized, by Alfons Juck, Intro by Larry Eder

EME NEWS (JAN 3, 2009) UPDATE

Twell wins her inaugural senior race

ANTRIM (GBR, Jan 3): World junior champion Stephanie Twell won her inaugural senior race as she triumphed at the IAAF International Cross Country in Northern Ireland on Saturday afternoon. The meeting, which moved from Belfast to Antrim this year, was the latest round of the McCain UK Cross Challenge Series and is one of the most prestigious annual cross country meetings in the UK. Twell´s victory was her third successive victory in the senior women's class in this year's series following earlier triumphs in Gateshead and Liverpool. She held off a strong challenge from Ireland's Deirdre Byrne by one second in 18:25 on the 5.6 km course. Scotland's Freya Murray was third in 18:32, with USA's Emily Brown fourth (18:35). In the senior 9 km men's race Ethiopian Imane Jida Merga the African Champs medalist upset Commonwealth 10,000m champion Boniface Kiprop of Uganda to win a sprint finish in 24:32 – 24:34. Arizona-based Scot Andrew Lemoncello was third in 24:49, despite having only returned to the UK on January 1st.

Blum gets 6.63

CHEMNITZ (GER, Jan 3): German sprinter Christian Blum achieved at LAC Chemnitz Club Meet the standard for Torino with 6.63 at 60 m. His PB is 6.59 and he hopes to be faster later in the season.

Strong Kenyans

SAN GIORGIO (ITA): A very strong kenyan team led by last year's winner Edwin Soi, Olympic medalist Eliud Kipchoge, Leonard Komon and Moses Mosop will clash against eight-times European Cross Country champion Sergiy Lebid at the 52nd edition of the Campaccio EA Permit Cross Country race on 6 January. Soi edged out Lebid in a dramatic race into the finish-line in the 2007 edition of the Campaccio where both runners shared the same time. Soi beat Lebid at the recent Boclassic Road Race on 31 December by four seconds. The Bolzano race showed that both Soi and Lebid are in very good shape and ready to renew their battle in the famous italian cross country race in San Giorgio su Legnano near Milan. Lebid, who claimed his eighth european cross country crown in Brussels, will be looking for his second win in the Campaccio, a race where he finished first in 2003, second in 2007 and third in 2002 and 2004. Eliud Kipchoge, olympic silver medallist in the 5000 metres in Bejing and former world champion over this distance in Paris in 2003, is the last addition to the impressive Campaccio field. Leonard Komon finished second at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Edinburgh in 2008 behind Kenenisa Bekele. Later in the year 21-year-old Komon dipped under the 27 minutes barrier in the 10000 metres for the first time in his career running 26:57.08 in Hengelo. Mosop won the world cross country silver medal on home-turf in Mombasa in 2007. After a career hampered by a series of injuries, Mosop, also a world bronze medallist in the 10000 metres in Helsinki 2005, seems to be coming back to his best form. Ethiopia will be represented by Ibrahim Jeylan Gashu, who won the world junior gold medal in the 10000 metres in Bejing in 2006. Jeylan set the 10000 world youth record in Brussels in 2006 running 27:02.81. The italian cross country team will be led by fresh european under 23 and 2006 european cross country junior champion Andrea Lalli and Daniele Meucci (a european under 23 bronze medallist in the 10000 metres). The women's race will be highlighted by the re-match of the 2008 Boclassic race between Gulnara Samitova Galkina from Russia and Aniko Kalovics from Hungary. Galkina crowned her memorable 2008 year crowned by the olympic title and the world record in Bejing with a solid win in the Boclassic Road Race on 31 December beating Kalovics. Kalovics knows the Campaccio course very well. The Hungarian won this race in 2004 after an impressive gun-to-tape race and finished second in 2007. Tetyana Holovchenko from the Ukraine will return to the venue where she took the european cross country title in 2006. The international field also features Cristina Casandra from Romania, fifth in the 3000 metres steeplechase at the Olympic Games in Bejing with a new national record of 9:16.85. Italian hopes are carried by Elena Romagnolo, who capped a successful 2008 year with the olympic final in the 3000 metres steeplechase in Bejing where she finished eleventh after setting the italian record in the heats with 9:27.48.

Sponsor for Jamaican Federation

KINGSTON (JAM): The 2009 track and field programme of the Jamaica Amateur Athletics Association (JAAA) received a jump start of J$500,000 from Quick Cash Money Transfer. Jamaica Observer informs. President of the JAAA's Howard Aris hopes the donation will be the first of many from corporate Jamaica as his team seeks to raise approximately $80 million in order to conduct the nation's track and field programmes this year.

Thompson remains in hospital

PORT OF SPAIN (TRI): Olympic silver medallist 24-year-old Richard Thompson was taken for a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) test yesterday and remains hospitalised at the Port-of-Spain General Hospital (PoSGH) receiving treatment for injuries from a car crash on New Year's Day morning in Port- of-Spain. Athletes Mark Burns and Emmanuel Callender accompanied Thompson from the ward to the NWRHA ambulance. Public relations officer for the National Amateur Athletic Association Peter Samuel said Thompson was sent for an MRI at the EWMSC and the family was awaiting the results. Samuel reiterated that Thompson did not suffer any broken bones and was not in any danger.

Special thanks to Alfons Juck and EME News.

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